Several activities & printables for a unit on the body and body organs.
For younger children, copy the colorful organs onto card stock. Cut out and paste on craft sticks to make organ puppets. Introduce the organs to your students one by one as you read information about them. Pause to ask questions and check comprehension.
For older students, copy the uncolored printable for students to use. Let them color and cut out organs and glue information to the back of each puppet. Have them break into groups of four and choose the information of an organ to read to their group.
After discussing the function of the organs, write the words brain, stomach, heart, and lungs at the top of chart paper. Ask children to name an action word. Place the word under an organ or organs it would affect such as eating-stomach, exercising-heart and lungs, thinking-brain, etc.
Hi, I’m your heart. I’m the size of your fist. Touch your chest and feel me pump the blood through your body. Feel the hard bone that is around me. This protects me inside your chest. Exercise me by running and jumping instead of watching TV or playing video games.
Hi, we’re your lungs. We help your body by breathing in oxygen, moving it through your body and letting out carbon dioxide you no longer need. The hard bones in your chest protect us as well as your heart. We like it when you exercise and take in deep breaths. It makes us stronger.
Hi, I’m your stomach. After you chew your food well in your mouth, it’s sent down to me. I mix it up with some stomach acid and make it a liquid your body can use as fuel or waste. When something doesn’t want to work as a fuel, it might upset me, so you’d better watch out. I might send it back.
Hi, I’m your brain. I work like a computer. I take in information you learn and sort it for you to remember. I have different places to store what you see, hear, smell, feel and taste. Without me the rest of your body cannot work.
RIDDLES AND PUZZLES
Printable: Can You Name It? Riddles & Puzzles Worksheet
Copy the Riddles and Puzzles printable. For early readers, read the riddle and ask them to think of a part of their body that would rhyme and make sense. Write the bottom puzzles on the board and work together to figure out the word.
For advanced readers, copy a page for each child. Ask them to solve the riddles and puzzles silently or in small groups.
In small groups, see if they can make some puzzles of their own to trade with other groups. Record puzzles on paper and trade with other classes if they’re interested in solving them.
It has a beat,
That warms your feet
An important part,
Is your heart.
It’s got lots of nerve.
It’s got to observe.
Think and strain,
It is your brain.
Exercise will give you strength,
To help you go the extra length.
Building them will help you hustle,
They are your own group of muscle.
The right foods will help them grow,
Fruits and veggies, green or yellow.
If you break one you will moan.
It’s always best to protect your bones.
- She-s + cart-c = heart
- brag-g + thin-th = brain
- living-ing + her-h = liver
- stove-ve + make-ke + chip-ip = stomach
- luck-ck + rings-ri = lungs
- ink-k + test + fine-t + s = intestines
GET READY FOR AN EMERGENCY
Practice calling 911. Talk about what is and isn’t an emergency. Example: Would you call 911…
- If you stubbed your toe?
- If your mother fell and couldn’t talk?
- If your kitty ran away?
- If you were lost?
Set up an emergency center for younger children using white shirts or hospital clothing. (Ask your local hospital for clothing and old stethoscopes.) Make a stretcher from directions below.
MAKE A STRETCHER
- Purchase two 4′ by 1/2″ dowel rods.
- Cut a 5′ by 3′ piece of heavy paper.
- Cut twenty-six 1′ pieces of jute.
- Double the edge of the paper by folding in each side about six inches-see illustration). Do the same at the front and end. (This is for strength.)
- Along each side, punch a hole every 3″ close to the outside edge and another about 3″ inward. You can put hole reinforcers on each hole for added strength.
- Wrap the double edges of sides around the dowel rod.
- Put ties through holes and connect to dowel rods. Tie securely along each side.
- Use masking or reinforcement tape to secure ties on each end.
- Supply children with teddy bears to hurry to the hospital on their stretcher.
For older children, give them the supplies and ask them to problem solve and make the best stretchers with these supplies. Afterward ask them to write the steps it took to make the stretcher.
MAKE ORGAN CARDS FOR A GAME
Copy enough organ cards so each child has a card. To play the game, review the organs and give each child a card. Sit children in chairs in a circle. Take one chair away so that one child will not have a chair. This child is the doctor. The doctor names an organ he wants to operate on. The children with those cards, along with the doctor, must switch and find a new chair. Whoever is left standing is the new doctor. He/She calls the next organ. Once in a while encourage them to call “major operation” where everyone gets up and finds a new seat. If you have trouble with one repeatedly staying up on purpose, ask them to pick someone to be the doctor (preferably one who hasn’t had a turn).
Printable: Body Mini-Book
Copy the printable body book. Ask children to cut along bottom line then fold like a card (top to bottom and left to right).
Frame any unknown words. Ask children to cut and glue correct picture for each page. Ask them to read book to a partner.
Grade Level(s): K, 1-2, 3-5
By: Susan Payne